The report’s authors said current conservation efforts were not enough to address the “ongoing and increasingly serious challenge” presented by climate change.
The country has fallen behind other developed nations in its commitment to slashing carbon emissions. Neither fires nor international pressure has pushed it away from coal and other fossil fuels.
UNESCO has called on the government to quickly mitigate the effects of climate change on the natural wonder and tourist destination, but officials say they are already doing plenty.
The tourism operators who depend on the natural wonder, already contending with climate change, have been walloped by the pandemic. The absence of visitors is bad for them — and the reef.
